The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-06-08
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN PASTORS sun
DAY SERMON
Subject: american Seamen."


TEXT: s'Behold also the ships-Jamea
lI., iv.
If this exclamation was appropriate about
1850 years ago, when it was written concern
ing the crude fishing smacks that sailed Lake
age which has launched from the dry docks
for purposes of peace-the Arizona, Of the
Guion Line, the City of Richmond, of the
1nman Line, the Egypt, of the National
Line, the Germanic, OF the White Star Line,
the Crcassia, Of the Anchor Line. the
Etruria, of the Cunard Line, and the Great
Eastern, with hull six hundred and eighty
feet long-not failure for it helped lay the
Atlantic cable, and that was enough glory
for one ships existence-and in an
age which for purposes of war
has launched the screw-sloopS like
the Idaho, the Shenandoah, the Ossippe, and
our ironcladS like the Kalamazoo, the Roa-
noke and the Dunderberg, and those which
have already been buried in the deep like the
Monitor, the Housatonic, the Weehawken and
the Tecumseh, the tempestS ever since sound
and the Scared veterans of war shipping that
have swung into the naval yards to spend
their last days, their decks now all silent of
the feet that trod them, their rigging all
silent of the hands that chung to them, their
portfolios silent of the brazen throats
that once thpndered out of them. If
in the first century, when war
vessels were dependent on the oars that pad
died at the side of them for propulsion, my
text was suggestive. with how much more
emphasis and meaning and overwhelming
Renaissance we can cry out as We see the
kearsage lay across the bows of the Alabama
and sink it, teaching foreign nations they had
better keep their hands off our American
fight; or as we see the ram Albermarle, of the
ConfederateS, running out and in the Roam
oke, and up and down the coast, throwing
everything into confusion as no other craft
ever did, pursued by the Miami, the Ceres, the
Southied, the Sassacus, the Mattabesett, Matt the
Whitehead, the Commodore Hull, the Louis
lana, the Minnesota and other armed vessels
all trying in vain to catch her, until Captain
Gushing, twenty -one years. of age, and his
men blew her up, himself and only one other
escaping; and as I see the flagship Hartford,
and the Richmond, and the Monongahela,
with other gunboats, sweep past the batteries
of Port Hudson, and the Mississippi flows
forever free to all Northern and Southern
craft, cry out with patriotic emotion that
1 cannot suppress if would, and would not
if I could "Behold also the ships"
At the annual decoration OF graves, North
and South, among Federals and Confederates,
full Justice has been done to the memory Of
those who fought on the land in our sad con-
test, but not enough has been said of those
who on ships deck dared and suffered all
things. Lord God of the rivers and the sea,
help me in this sermon! So, ye admiras,
commanders, captains, pilots, gunnerS, boat
SWANS, sailmakers, surgeons, stokers, mess
mates and seamen of all names, to use your
own parlance, We might as well get under
way and stand out toward sea. Let all land
lubbers 60 ashore. Full speed now! Four
bellsi
Never since the sea fight of Lepanto, where
three hundred royal galleys manned by fifty
thousand warriors, at sunrise, September E,
l57l, met two hundred and fifty royal galleyS
manned by one hundred and twenty thousand
men, and in the four hours of battle eight
rhousand fell on one side and twenty-five
thousand on the other; yea, never since the
day when at Actium, thirty-on years before
Christ, Augustus with two hundred and
sixty ships scattered the two hundred and
twenty ships of Mark Antony and gained
universal dominion as the prize; yea,
since the day when at Salamis the twelve
hundred galleys of the Persians manned by
five hundred thousand men, were crushed by
Greeks with less than third of that force;
yea, never since the time Of Noah. the first
ship captain, has the world seen such q
miraculous creation as that of the American
Navy in 1861. There were about two hun
dred available seamen in all the naval stations
and receiving ships, and here and there an
old vessel. Yet orders were given to blockade
thirty-fiye hundred miles of sea coast, greater
than the whole coast of Europe, and, besides
that the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland,
Mississippi, and other great rivers, covering
an extent of two thousand more miles, were
TO be patrolled. No wonder the
whole civilized world burst into
outlaws of laughter at the seeming
impossibility. But the work was done, done
II. ,o<1 11,- l@-A Il, 4~.l
done with a speed and consummate skill
that ecipsed all the history Of naval arcki-
lecture. What brilliant achievements are
suggested by the mere mention of the name
of the rear admnalS If all they did should
be written, every one, Isuppose that even the
world itself could not contain the books that
should be written. But these names have re-
ceived the honors due. The most of them
went to their graves under the cannonade Of
all the forts, navy yards and men-of-war, the
flags Of all the shipping and ca 2itals at half
mast.
But recite to-day the deeds of our naval
heroes who have not yet received appropri-
ate recognition Behold also the ships" As
we will never know what our national pros
perity is worth until We realize what it cost,
recall the unrecited fact that the men Of the
navy ran especial risks. They had not only
the human weaponry to contend with, but
Iu6 GlueS, lue LUZ, Iuo SgOIu ENOU uhb OGutI
ships could they run into harbor
at the approach of an equinox, or
a cyclone, or q hurricane, becars,
the harbors were hostile A miScalculation
OF tide might leave them OFT bar, and a
fog might overthrow all the plans of wisest
commodore and admiral, and accident might
leave them, not on the LAID ready for an
ambulance, but at the bottom of the sea- as
when the torpedo blew up the Tecumseh in
N4li1 L. 4a~1.. fl l. -
They were at the mercy Of the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans, which have no mercy. Such
tempests as wrecked the Spanish
Armada might any day swoop upon the
squadron. No hiding behind the earthworks.
No digging in of cavalry spurs at the sound Of
retreat. Mightier than all the fortresses on
all the coasts, is the ocean when it bombards
fotilla- In the cemeteries for Federal and
Confederate dead are the bodies of most Of
those who fell on the land. But whore those
are who went down in the war vessels will
not be known until the sea gives up its dead.
The Jack tarS knew that while loving arms
might carry the men who fell on the land
and bury them with solemn liturgy,
and the honors Of war, for the bodies of
those who dropped from the ratlines into
the sea or went down with all on board under
the stroke of a gunboat there remained the
shark and the whale and the endless tossing
of the sea which cannot rest. How will YOU
find their graves for this national decoration!
Nothing but the archangefS trumpet shall
reach their lowly bed. A few of them have
been gathered into naval cemeteries of
the land and you will garland the sod
that covers them. but who will put
flowers on the fallen crew of the
exploded WeSttield and Shawsheen, and the
sunken Southfeld and the Winfield Scott.
Bullets threatening in front, bombs threaten
ing from above, torpedoes threatening from
beneath and the ocean with its reputation Of